Robot 6

Steampunk meets manga in Westerfeld’s Uglies

Del Rey, once the otaku favorite, no longer publishes manga, but they still have a line of global manga, and the newest announcement is causing a bit of a stir.

Leviathan author Scott Westerfeld is the latest prose writer to make the leap over to graphic novels. Sci-fi site io9 has the scoop on Westerfeld’s SDCC announcement: Del Rey will produce four manga-style graphic novels based on his Uglies novels, which are set in a future where all teenagers have plastic surgery to make them beautiful when they are 16. Westerfeld will come up with the storylines, which will change the point of view of the story from the character Tally Youngblood to Shay. Devin Grayson (USER, Nightwing) will script the graphic novels, and Steven Cumming will handle the art. Watch for the first volume in May 2012. Oh, and there’s a movie in the works as well.

I read the entire series, and thought it was the kind of theme that would be PERFECT if it were converted to Manga. Right from the normal-looking Uglies to the beyond-perfect Pretties to the extra-dangerous Specials, and even a bonus volume in Extras.

And Nick H. is right in that it’s not steampunk. It’s closer to Near-Future Science Fiction.